If you’re like me, and millions of others born in the late 70s to mid 90s, life hasn’t taken the path you’d imagined it would when you were charting your course as a young adult. Times have changed, rather abruptly for some of us. What work means has changed. What constitutes fulfilling work and a fulfilling life has changed.
I did what I was supposed to do. I went to school and was a diligent student for years. 24 years, to be exact. I planned on a career as a ballet dancer. When that didn’t pan out I went to school to become a biologist. Another 12 years in school. I spent 10 years trying to make a career as a biologist and despite my years of networking and experience and passion, that didn’t work out either.
In 2008, when the financial reality of what went on in the US hit the rest of the world I think there was a massive change in how people of the millennial generation and those coming along afterwards need to relate to the world of ‘work’. Reality for me means that I’m not going to have a full time permanent position in any company or government organization. Those jobs don’t exist anymore. And quite frankly, I really don’t want one even if someone did offer me one.
I recently finished a book by the visionary marketing writer Seth Godin called ‘Linchpin’. He talks about how the way we school children was designed by factory workers to produce abundant, obedient employees that also happily over-consumed the stuff those factories made. It worked for some time but now the rules of the game have changed. It no longer serves us to become obedient cogs in the wheel. Those of us, like myself, who went to school with the promise of good things to come if you do well, we aren’t seeing that come to fruition. In fact, I count 10 years of lost productivity and undeveloped abilities that came about from diligently following the path that ‘soon’ would pay off. Nowadays, the new reality of work is the gig economy. Long gone are the days of the permanent, stable, full-time job with benefits and growth potential. We have to get creative.
Instead, my new path is to become what Emilie Wapnick calls a ‘multipotentialite’ (www.ted.com/talks/emilie_wapnick_why_some_of_us_don_t_have_one_true_calling). Someone who recognizes that they’re good at many things and who explores those different things as potential ways of creating meaningful work and giving back to the world. So my path has me wearing a few different hats. I love writing (obviously) and teaching and I’m a nerd about how the human body works. So I’ve become a technical writer, a dance teacher and a movement therapist. I’m not one thing. I’m many things. And none of these things employs me full time or steadily, and that’s ok!
My day never seems like work. My commute is by foot to the studio. I spend part of my day reading, writing and learning, several evenings a week I am teaching and scattered throughout my schedule I restore people’s range of motion. Those years spent idle not learning new things or getting a chance to grow? Being a business owner all I ever do is learn how to do things I don’t know how to do. I am undergoing massive growth every week and I get to spend my time helping people feel better about their bodies. It’s immensely rewarding.
Am I saying that this new way of looking at work is for everyone? No. I know lots of people who happily head off to work for a company or government organization. People who need the stability and reliability of a full time job doing one thing. But it’s not for everyone. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d like being a business owner and not having a steady full time job. I had to take this path out of necessity. All my other options dried up and I had no choice but to pursue the scary dream that was pushed to the back of my mind as I finished a PhD and took exam after exam trying to land a government job. I’m so glad I took this path and I hope that my story inspires others who have so much in them to give to the world to take the scary leap (slowly, not all at once like I had to!) and decide for yourself how you provide value to the world.
As Seth Godin says that the end of every episode of his podcast ‘Akimbo’ “Go make a ruckus”.